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Most (all?) long distance trains in the US run at most once per day, so if you get off a train at 10PM to get to a hotel, you get on the next train tomorrow at... 10PM. So that doesn't really solve any problems. But Amtrak seats are incredibly nice, tons of leg room, lots of reclining, etc. I've easily napped in one on a day trip, I imagine if I tried to sleep the night my sleep would at least be serviceable.
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Jul 30, 2018 17:19
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iirc also sleeper berths on Amtrak include meals.
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Jul 30, 2018 18:01
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Kilonum posted:iirc also sleeper berths on Amtrak include meals. They do.
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Jul 30, 2018 18:19
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sincx fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Mar 23, 2021 |
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Jul 30, 2018 18:21
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sincx posted:Sleepers might be less expensive than you think. Last month Amtrak had a sleeper sale, and I priced out a sleeper roomette for 2 on the California Zephyr, all the way from Chicago to San Francisco Bay, for just $600, for both passengers, all meals included. So $1200 round trip? Or would you just go one way and then fly home for about the same price?
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Jul 30, 2018 23:50
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Disgruntled Bovine posted:I'd love to take a cross-country train trip one of these days, but I would not be able to sleep in my seat and sleeper accommodations are ridiculously expensive. I think the best way to do it would be to get off the train each night to sleep in a motel or something and then get back on the next day, but given how infrequently a lot of the long distance Amtrak trains run that might not be feasible. Roomettes on the Coast starlight aren't bad price wise. Like $500 including the ticket (which is like $200). You can do it for under $400 if you book well enough in advance.
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Jul 31, 2018 02:03
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sincx fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Mar 23, 2021 |
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Jul 31, 2018 02:44
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I don't wanna have to train for it, I hate the gym ☹️
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Jul 31, 2018 16:19
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My ultimate dream to attend PAX West is to fly to Toronto, take the train from there to Vancouver (forget what that one is called), ferry to Seattle, then take the Empire Builder and Lake Shore Limited home to Boston.
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Jul 31, 2018 20:00
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Kilonum posted:My ultimate dream to attend PAX West is to fly to Toronto, take the train from there to Vancouver (forget what that one is called), ferry to Seattle, then take the Empire Builder and Lake Shore Limited home to Boston. spending a week riding a train seems like a pretty attainable dream to me
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Jul 31, 2018 22:26
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Aug 2, 2018 04:26
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vains posted:spending a week riding a train seems like a pretty attainable dream to me Not on my income, especially combined with spending a week in Seattle. And I currently work retail, and the week before and the week after Labor Day (PAX West is normally Labor Day weekend) are the busiest two weeks in my store (office supply store during back to school season).
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Aug 2, 2018 05:01
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Aug 2, 2018 05:16
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Aug 2, 2018 05:28
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I don't get it.
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Aug 2, 2018 10:36
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It's a knuckle sandwich
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Aug 2, 2018 10:40
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Kilonum posted:Not on my income, especially combined with spending a week in Seattle. And I currently work retail, and the week before and the week after Labor Day (PAX West is normally Labor Day weekend) are the busiest two weeks in my store (office supply store during back to school season). aim for the moon and, if you miss, you'll land amongst the stars.
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Aug 2, 2018 19:41
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I just did the coast starlight San Jose to Seattle, it's a beautiful trip. Recommend sleepers if you can swing it, business class if that's too expensive. The business class seats are quiet and comfortable with their own power outlets and all. Coach is pretty loud, but might be fine if you want to socialize more.
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Aug 3, 2018 05:53
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I have to admit that I stared at it for a good five minutes trying to figure out what was going on before I got it.
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Aug 6, 2018 15:21
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Dalrain posted:I just did the coast starlight San Jose to Seattle, it's a beautiful trip. Recommend sleepers if you can swing it, business class if that's too expensive. The business class seats are quiet and comfortable with their own power outlets and all. it is a beautiful trip overall most of the way, and really worth it to do at least once sucks that the parlor cars came off, esp since the recently introduced business class level was also allowed in there. these cars weren't strictly necessary, but it was nice to have two or three more lunch and dinner options beside the same old basic poo poo the diner offers these days. can't tell you how many "signature steaks" I've eaten (actually not that many) - it gets old quick. i will comment that the absolute best part of the trip is between LAX and SLO. just gorgeous views which range from beachside to cliffside. anything north of SAC is pretty nice too. Northbound, Mt Shasta rises in the windows around 5 or 6 am, if you're on time. Luckily, you're almost never on time, so you get to sleep in a little bit. a proper breakfast in the diner in the Shastas has to be one of the great railway travel experiences in the world. The mountain niceness continues into KFS and gradually drops off as you finally come into EUG and realize the magic's over. your reward for succesfully trekking across the shasta range will be an extra hour or two of sitting in various sidings for freight trains on the flatlands and riverbeds between EUG and PDX. yeah don't expect to be on time lol, that's where the private compartment really pays off. but yeah man, mr bovine guy, you gotta scrape together the dough for a roomette, a transcon trip is pretty unbearable in coach. roomette prices aren't that bad if you're flexible on dates and book enough ahead of time. even in BC i'd personally only spend one day max - it's pretty much just coach with a dedicated attendant for your car, a $6 voucher toward poo poo cafe food, and ~maybe you get an upgraded car with nicer seats~ but ~also maybe you don't~
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Aug 12, 2018 00:04
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I saw $69 flights to denver and randomly bought a ticket to Denver and a return to California on the California Zephyr in a roomette. It's on Veteran's day weekend, so if the train is late, I still have an extra day buffer which apparently might be needed. I haven't done a sleeper in the US since I was like 5, want to experience it before the new amtrak head gets rid of them.
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Aug 12, 2018 08:26
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Cal Zephyr owns, especially the part between Sacramento and Denver. I'm glad I did it, especially in a sleeper. Hope you like it too.
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Aug 12, 2018 09:00
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Quality parking job.
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Aug 31, 2018 22:44
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So, bit of crossover here: The Fremont car factory, which was formerly GM/Toyota, now Tesla, had its rail spurs ripped up. This is huge because rail is how car companies ship large amounts of goods. There were two spurs there, one to the North and one to the South. The North spur was used for unloading cars from points elsewhere. The South spur was used for loading completed cars from the factory to be shipped. A great setup, as the empty autoracks from the North spur could be filled with completed cars on the South spur. UP wins because they don't have to ferry move racks all the time, and GM/Toyota wins because reduced rates. The North spur was the first one to go, understandable but shortsighted, as Tesla doesn't have another car factory or the product line GM or Toyota had. The South spur got ripped up for the tent factory, but it appears to also have been from bad blood between UP and Tesla. There appear to be two causes for this: 1. Tesla wanted an express train from the Gigafactory to Fremont, and to have it highest priority. UP scoffed at this, partially because Tesla had such a tight delivery window that would all but certainly encounter late goods fines, and the amount they were willing to pay did not even come close to such a demand (it was essentially UP would have to have it be a "no-meet no-stop train"). Tack on the fact that these would be short unit trains, probably demanding two new road locos up front to make the proposed timeframe, the deal fell through. This immediately soured relations. 2. Tesla was not producing cars quickly enough for them to have its own unit train out of the plant, meaning the autoracks would be tacked on to manifests. This obviously meant slower trains across the country and potentially rougher handling of the cars in yards. These two combined with Tesla ripping out all the rail on the factory side of things, and UP went scorched earth by ripping out the wye that lead to the South spur. So now Tesla has to ship its cars, by truck, down to an autorack unloading facility to have the cars picked up and... put on a manifest train.
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Sep 14, 2018 20:36
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1 is super weird to me because in JIT logistics with short lead times you almost always use trucks due to low volumes and high response time requirements - why the desire to use trains?
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Sep 14, 2018 23:28
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:1 is super weird to me because in JIT logistics with short lead times you almost always use trucks due to low volumes and high response time requirements - why the desire to use trains? My guess is that they wanted the train version of it. Could get more units in one go to get more cars off the floor at the same time. The other thought is they wanted to move away from JIT into more traditional car making so they could have inventory to distribute to those who don't want to extensively customize. There are reports that they're moving to a traditional dealer model.
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Sep 14, 2018 23:35
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the linehaul on a 270mi move wouldn't be worth it except at an exorbitant rate that destroys any value for the customer. isn't tesla pretty notorious for eschewing anyone with real industry experience? iospace posted:My guess is that they wanted the train version of it. Could get more units in one go to get more cars off the floor at the same time. the train version of jit logistics is intermodal. trying to do it with boxcars sounds like a 36-48hr move from empty placement at the customer's facility to placement at the arrival facility.
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Sep 14, 2018 23:47
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They want to use their electric semis!
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Sep 14, 2018 23:51
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vains posted:the linehaul on a 270mi move wouldn't be worth it except at an exorbitant rate that destroys any value for the customer. Yes, very much so. quote:the train version of jit logistics is intermodal. Point, don't they normally do this with UPS and FedEx?
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Sep 15, 2018 00:18
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iospace posted:My guess is that they wanted the train version of it. Could get more units in one go to get more cars off the floor at the same time. none of this makes sense the line moves at a metered rate so having more units in one go just means a bigger pile of inventory. the ideal is for your components to flow to the line at the rate that you produce cars in the correct sequence, and you can't just magically speed up the line. everyone uses JIT for auto manufacturing with a buffer facility that handles sequencing and metering because you can't actually get to the ideal flow rate from a transportation and component manufacturing perspective. sequencing and metering sites run best at low inventory levels and are inherently waste. unless they want to pile up a ton of inventory at their sequencing/metering facility for no advantage, which is actually a fairly Tesla thing to do.
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Sep 15, 2018 14:27
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:none of this makes sense Ah, ok. I was spitballing based on what knowledge I had, which I'll concede isn't as much as yours. 
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Sep 15, 2018 14:36
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iospace posted:Yes, very much so. no, i dont think so. ups and fedex are parcel services i.e. expensive per ton or cubic meter. they're going to be targeting carload or more likely truckload moves for the majority of their volume.
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Sep 15, 2018 14:56
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While not quite trains, this kind of continues the previous discussion about up pulling up the tracks at the tesla plant. https://electrek.co/2018/09/24/tesla-building-own-car-carriers-shortage-model-3-delivery-rush-week/ Tldr: Tesla's increased productivity means they wish they had that track and car carrier support on the plant still.
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Sep 25, 2018 01:05
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Don’t worry...I’m sure these hastily-constructed auto carriers, as well as the motley crew of loons/cultists who volunteer to operate them, will all be fully compliant with the full suite of applicable Federal regulations.
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Sep 25, 2018 03:25
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this is one of those situations where there are already a bunch of companies that make this exact thing so why do they not just buy it
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Sep 25, 2018 12:56
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Yeah but those other companies are probably run by a bunch of pedophile cave divers. Elon knows best.
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Sep 25, 2018 16:47
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it's not like there are major innovations in car carriers that are just waiting for Elon's intrepid dweebs to uncover
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Sep 25, 2018 21:47
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It’s bad https://www.google.com/amp/s/kdvr.com/2018/10/05/one-dead-one-missing-after-catastrophic-wyoming-train-crash/amp/
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Oct 6, 2018 17:14
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Having worked for a newspaper and having a lot of family and friends who have been in the military/firefighting trades, it amuses me how they dance around the fact that the "missing" guy is ... well ... everybody knows he's dead as all hell. But he's officially "missing" until confirmed dead. Also, traditional railroad tale -- the brakemen jumped, the engineers stay and hold the brakes, just like the captain goes down with his ship.
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Oct 6, 2018 20:56
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Bad Angus! Bad!
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kcs seems to be the only railroad with their wits about them. https://www.freightwaves.com/news/railroads/kansas-city-southern-precision-railroading
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Oct 7, 2018 18:10
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